498 MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY 



scissors in the right hand, and cut all round the lateral margin of the 

 abdomen, removing the entire margin on each side, but stopping short at 



the anal end. Now place the specimen in a paraffin 

 Dissection .... t . . . 



trough with its ventral surface uppermost, fasten it down 



by two pins through the lateral margins of the thorax, and flood it with 

 saline solution. Take a hooked retractor needle, and insert it in the 

 notch between the posterior end of the thorax and the anterior end of 

 the abdomen, that is, in front of the first abdominal sternite. With a 

 slow and steady pull the whole of the ventral wall of the abdomen can 

 be removed from before backwards, the connecting tracheal twigs being 

 severed as it is retracted. The flap should be pinned out behind the 

 dissection. 



The whole of the contents of the abdomen are now exposed. The 

 mid-gut and rectum are easily recognized by the characteristic colour of 

 their contents ; the ovaries can be freed by detaching the apical threads, 

 and reflected backwards out of the way. To obtain the salivary glands, 

 cut through the neck with a pair of sharp scissors, and then pull the 

 proventriculus, with the cardiac glands attached, out of the thorax ; the 

 anterior pair of glands are attached to the proventriculus by a few fine 

 fibrils, and can be drawn out and removed in a wide pipette. 



FAMILY CIMICIDAE 



Head short and broad ; the proboscis lies in a groove on the ventral 

 surface of the head and thorax ; ocelli are absent ; elytra short and broad, 

 leaving most of the abdomen uncovered. Tarsi three-jointed. (Distant). 



According to Distant the family Cimicidae contains the four genera 

 Cimex, Oeciacus, Cacodmus and Haematosiphon ; to these must be added 

 the genus Loxaspis recently created by Rothschild for a species parasitic 

 on a bat. The genus Cimex is the only one which contains important 

 blood-sucking species. 



GENUS CIMEX,* L. 



Head short and broad ; antennae four-jointed, the apical joints slender. 

 Prothorax semilunar in shape with its anterior angles considerably 



" There has been considerable dispute regarding the generic name of lectularius, L.; 

 the literature dealing with the subject is given in Girault's Bibliography of the Bed Bug, 

 Cimex lectularius. to which the worker is referred for further details. Dr. C. Wardell 

 Stiles has made a careful study of the synonomy of this insect and has decided that 

 lectularius is the type of Cimex, Linnaeus. The authors see no adequate reason for 

 altering the generic name now familiar to every one; the generic names Acanthia 

 Klinophilos and Cltnocoris are therefore rejected. 



